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Topic: The Hiithel (Read 7051 times)

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”

And that was the start. One man’s imagination, a rich fool from the outskirts of the galaxy. His urge to create took over his mind. After purchasing a synthetic planet, built to his specification, he taught himself genetic engineering. His first attempts were complete failures, and he threw them out on to the barren planet to fend for themselves, among the ecosystem he designed. Finally, he succeeded in creating what he wanted; this unnatural thing, this monstrosity. He called it a Hiithel, from the word Hiirav, meaning child and his name, Thel.

In isolation on his planet he lived, with his children. Unknown to him, the two Hiithel he created had invaded the depths of his mind and were slowly destroying him from inside, using him for their own desires. The way he designed them made them require a host for reproduction, and his two had chosen him. Every day he grew weaker, never realising his mistake. Finally, his life came to an end. As he lay there, taking his final breath, the two Hiithel spoke to him in his language. “Thank you. Thank you for our life, and our children’s lives.” Finally, his two hearts stopped beating. Slowly, the three young squirmed their way out of his back, breaking his skin and revealing themselves to the world. Softly, the adults picked them up and placing them on their backs, strode out into the outside world.

Fourteen-thousand years later, the Hiithel had built an advanced civilisation spanning all of the continents and even the oceans.

Average length: 4 foot.Average IQ: 214.Average lifespan: 40 years.Status: Sapient, has FTL tech, uses Cold Fusion, yet are not space faring as they have no concept of space.Current relationships: Neutral with everyone, as they don't know they exist.

Biology

The Hiithel, being genetically engineered, have several features that could not have evolved naturally. However, due to the perfectionism of their creator, they perfectly suit its habitat.The first is their unique way of gaining energy.

The Hiithel use a highly modified autotrophic method to produce glucose.Photosynthesis starts with an electron in a molecule in chlorophyll, excited from impact with a photon. Instead of using a photon to excite an electron, the Hiithel takes this electron directly from a charged atom.The way their creator intended for them to do this when they left or he died was with lightening. The planet was designed to be constantly stormy and the top layers of their planet is covered in a substance not unlike graphite, with free electrons allowing it to carry a charge. Instead of normal soil where the charge from a lightening inpact would spead out pretty much equally, this material makes it much more lifely for the charge to diffuse sideways, just under the surface. The Hiithel implants their retractable claws on their rear leg into the ground and carries the charge through a nerve like system to their storage organ. 1 lightening strike is enough to feed the Hiithel for the equivilent of 40 days. The other required elements, carbon dioxide and water are absorbed through different methods; water absorbed through a membrane in their front set of hands and carbon dioxide through spiracles in their skin. They have the spines on their back for the same reason a pine tree does: to increase their surface area and take in more carbon dioxide.

Senses

The Hiithel has four main senses: Electroreception, Hearing, Touch and Taste.Their primary sense is Electroreception. The Hiithel pumps sodium ions, removed from the water it absorbs, out of the electrocyte cells layered in the Hiithel's crest. This creates a electrical field around the Hiithel. It has electroreceptor cells spread across it's body, just under the skin. By sensing disturbances in the electric field, the electroreceptors allow the Hiithel to discriminate between objects of different size, shape and conductivity, and also allows it to determine the distance from the object and also, by picking up the own electric field produced in the brain, whether the thing in question is alive or not. The skin is also not very resistive, which improves the sensitivity of the electroreceptors. The disadvantages of this is that it is energy intensive, and it only works over distances of a few body lengths.

The Hiithel's hearing is acute, to make up for the lack of distance electroreception works over. The Hiithel speaks through the middle set of 'gills' under the electrorection crest and hear using the back set. It speaks in a language derived from their creator's, but with tenses and emotional words mostly removed, as they are encoded into the pulses used for electroreception.

The Hiithel's touch sense isn't great, due to the extra use of the skin as a respiratory membrane and the electroreptors below. However, it can still feel if the right amount of pressure is put on it.

The Hiithel, altough lacking a tongue, can taste the air, with layers of specialised cells located under the creature's head.

Society

Hiithelian society is based around the principles of equality. They value rights highly, and treat the other members of their race with respect and friendship, as their creator once did to them.Each Hiithel recieves from the government a set amount of electricity and water for living with, a set amount of leisure electricity and an account, which credits are paid into weekly, the amounts of these depend on the difficulty of the job and the willingness of society to fulfil the role which the Hiithel chooses. Each Hiithel also recieves living accommodation. If the Hiithel is paired, they take their belongings and move into accommodation 2.5 times the size of a single house, to encourage pairing.The Hiithelian government works democratically, with anyone being allowed a chance to gain a position of governmental power. The heirarchy works with a leader from each city being elected, then one of those from each country, then 14 ofg those to make up the council. Each of these positions receive a wage that is slightly above average.When something needs to be done, the situation is brought to the city leader, who holds a vote on whether it should go ahead or not. All suggestions are dealt with like this, as if something stupid is suggested, then it will simply be rejected.

That's it for now. I'll make a post with culture and religion, as well as their reproduction method soon.Now, if you've got any questions, I'll answer them.Firstly though: I will be RPing with these, starting with a first contact RP scenario, preferably with one of the more peaceful races. I don't really want to get wiped out on first contact.

I've been planning this and lurking here since December, and now I finally think it's ready.I've lost count of the times I've changed stuff about these guys.

I've also got some pics and stuff I want to scan in and colourify, but I'm absolutely drowning in coursework currently. Eh, it'll be finished soon, then I can turn my attention back to my little friends here.

For now, some short info about their numbering system.

They use base 14, due to the 7 digits on each of their mid legs.Incidentally, they use their central pair of limbs as manipulators, as if they used their front pair, they would lose balance, and they can't get their rear one in front of them.Conveniently, their ligaments and tendons are fluid based, allowing them to get their central legs in front of them.Of course, each of the other limbs can also be used if needed, but it is easier to use the central ones.